CALAIS, Maine - The city will be 200 years old next year and already discussions have started as to what to do to celebrate the anniversary.
Fred Becker of the St. Croix Historical Society met with the City Council earlier this month to talk about planning for the bicentennial. “I would like the council … to officially proclaim July 31, 2009, as the beginning of the bicentennial,” he said. He said volunteers were needed. “It is going to take a lot of people [to make this a success],” he said.
Becker said he would like to invite the governor as well as other dignitaries.
The council reviewed information Becker had about the centennial in 1909, including stories about the preparations leading up to it as reported in the July and August 1909 editions of the Calais Advertiser.
He even included an article from the Lewiston Journal. In that article, the writer talked about the city’ s connection to the 1604 French settlement on St. Croix Island.
Mayor Vinton Cassidy said Wednesday that he thought holding the bicentennial celebration was a great idea. He said the city plans to look at its budget to find funds to get the planning stages started. “I think we should make this a real exciting event in 2009,” he said.
To make it a success, Cassidy added, he believed that all of the city’ s civic and social organizations should participate.
The city has a rich history.
Its name was selected in the spring of 1806. It had previously been called Township No. 5. That same year the residents petitioned the federal government for a post office. “[The] principal reason for naming the settlement after a large city in France was to perpetuate the memory of the early French settlement on the St. Croix,” the Calais Advertiser reported.
The majority members of the City Council in 1909 were eager to support the celebration. At a council meeting that year, the Calais Advertiser reported that the then mayor suggested the city spend $500 on the festivities. “Alderman Colson was the only one who spoke against the proposition. He thought the city must have money to burn,” the Advertiser reported. The rest of the council approved the appropriation.
More than 1,000 invitations were mailed including one to then Gov. Bert M. Fernald, who did attend.
The day of the ceremony, the governor and his wife were met at Ayer’ s Junction, more than 10 miles away and were “escorted to the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Eaton through streets thronged with people, the thoroughfare representing in a way a fairy scene with its brilliant illumination of red and other colored fire, which reflected from the decorations along the route in a very pretty manner,” the Advertiser said.
A 100-gun salute and the ringing of bells in the city welcomed the governor.
Ten bands performed including the 2nd Regiment Band of Bangor.
There also was a grand parade that consisted of military and society organizations, historical, fancy and trade floats.
Calais resident Henry B. Eaton presented a fountain to the city. Arrows and other items were placed in a copper box to be opened at the bicentennial. Although the original fountain is gone from the city, it is unclear if the box remains planted in the ground.
It was estimated later that about 20,000 people attended the festivities. “Railroad alone bringing in considerably over 4,000, and steamers and every other means of conveyance added to the great crowd almost hourly. The weather was all that could be wished for,” the Calais Advertiser reported.
Hotels were overflowing. “While sleeping accommodations were rather overcrowded, there was no lack of food and drink at reasonable prices, and the demand was fully met by the regular hotels and eating houses, as well as by the ladies of the Second Baptist Church, Union Church, Knight Memorial Church and St. Anne’ s Church,” the newspaper said.
And people were orderly. “The police force had little to do except to stand guard at dangerous crossings,” the newspaper reported. “There was an entire absence of drunkenness and fighting, too often the accompaniment of holidays.”